"I'm not one to go home and pout about this," Verlander said. "I'm one who will figure it out in a hurry.

"I can tell things are a bit off. I know what I need to do. It's just a matter of doing it. It's going to be a matter of working it out in the bullpen, repeating pitches and carrying it over into the game.

"I've been tinkering too much. No more video. Back to basics now."

The bottom line was this: In the third inning, it looked like Uncle Herman Verlander out there on the mound instead of Justin Verlander.

Verlander rarely hits a batter on any count, let alone 1-2, to load the bases. But that wasn't close to being the worst of it.

With the Tigers leading 3-1 against Yu Darvish, Verlander walked the next batter, Elvis Andrus, to force in the first run of the third.

That's rare, but not unheard of. Verlander walked Cleveland's Jason Giambi with the bases loaded in his last start, but had done it only twice before that in his career.